Wow, Heather made an engaging thread.

I loved Phantoms. I read that book, swiping it off my ex's floorboard between my parent's house and back. I read Odd Thomas too. The first was great, but I couldn't really get into the second one. Odd reminded me of someone I once knew, and old flame. Couldn't shake it. However, those books are extremely creative. I've read some of his other stuff now, but titles are elusive bastards sometimes.

All in all, I don't mind Koontz. He's not what I would consider great, except when he is, if you know what I mean. He's got some great people in his books, i.e. Odd.

Now I don't do Layman. I bought a book of his short stories on my trip back from the UK, and they were horrendous.

Don't bother. I read this all the way through. The same goes for "Strangers" (another long, pointless Koontz title) and was sorry I did. I was just glad to be able to move on with my life. Instead of Mr. Murder, read "The Dark Half". For King it kind of sucks, but its still an assload better than Mr. Murder.

Well put. I think his characters lack a lot of depth. The females are always beautiful, smart and sexy yet troubled, and find it strange that the hunky, wholesome and well off male lead is interested in them. Koontz writes like he wants all his books to be made into B movies.

Overall though, hes got a few gems in the midst of his freaking hundreds of predictable formulaic work, so its not all that bad. Just promise you'll never read "Tick Tock". :p

Too late, I have already read Tick Tock....;) I've read most of Koontz's work. I don't remember a lot of it, but I have read it.

I actually really liked King's The Dark Half, not one of my favorites, but I did enjoy it. I even liked the movie......:D

I never saw the movie. Romero did it, right?

Yep. not just outstanding, but I think it is actually a pretty decent King adaptation. Timothy Hutton stars, and he did a fine job (but I have always liked him for some reason).

Yeah I'll have to check that one out sometime.

i'm never reading a stephen king book again.

havent been a fan for many many years. i find his prose to be overconfident, smug. And i really don't care that he's exorcising every demon he's ever had in print - i never need to read about another screw up writer looking for redemption again.

so everyone told me 'read cell, it's really good"

so i read it.

blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

in all fairness i think horror fiction is the worst genre of writing in existence.
sounds odd coming from both a rabid reader and a rabid horror fan - but for me it's true.

I find it's written the way low budget horror films are made ..

cardboard thin cliched characters you couldn't care less about, rushed plot developement to get to the juicy bits, and unsatisfactory conclusions.

i find the genre is far more sucessful in short story format.

i enjoy clive Barkers books of blood - cant stand his novels.


one guy did impress me though - Jack Ketchum .. I read o ne of his and he seemed to have his finger on what made a horror novel real. cant remember the name of it but it was a raw read, sort of like The Hills Have Eyes

I think you're right that horror fiction is tough to pull off and please everybody, even Poe couldn't do it. Remember that Mark Twain said, "To me his prose is unreadable--like Jane Austen's. No, there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's." about Poe.



Urge, have you read American Psycho or House of Leaves?

Off Season....I just read it recently, and I liked it a lot also. Have yet to read anything else by the guy, but I was fairly impressed as well.

I of course disagree about Barker and King but I do agree that with the horror genre, short stories often work much better.

i havent read American Psycho - but i think i have a copy of it.
(i've had that movie for years but i haven't watched it oddly enough)

I haven't read House of Leaves but I've seen enough written about it to make me curious .. i'd check it out if i saw it anywhere.


keep in mind that the last author i read with high recommendations was Brian Lumley Necroscope series - but i thought it was terrible.